Another poor start at home forced the Mountain Hawks to spend most of the day playing from behind.

Loyola University Maryland came to Stabler Arena scuffling on offense. Lehigh allowed the Greyhounds to race out to a 15-point lead after 13 minutes.

When the Mountain Hawks finally seized the lead late in the second half, they gave it away with their perimeter defense. Loyola nailed three 3-pointers in a 1-minute, 4-second stretch to surge back ahead.

The Greyhounds led the rest of the afternoon, collecting a 65-60 win in a Patriot League men's basketball game.

Lehigh (7-8 overall, 1-3 Patriot League) arrived at Stabler coming off one of its best efforts this season. The Mountain Hawks stifled Army on the road Wednesday, limiting the Black Knights to a season-low 60 points.

Lehigh promptly allowed Loyola (6-9, 2-2) to make six of its first seven shots from the field Saturday. Thus continued the Mountain Hawks' trend of bad starts at Stabler.

Lehigh is now 1-4 against Division I opponents on its home floor and 0-2 in the Patriot League at Stabler.

"It's a head-scratcher," Lehigh freshman point guard Kahron Ross said. "I feel like every time we're at home we come out a little slow. I think it just translates from practice. Sometimes we come out slow in practice, and it translates over to the game.

"I just feel like we've got to build [better] habits at practice. If we do it in practice, I feel like we'll have a better chance to do it in the game."

Ross' energy helped the Mountain Hawks rally from a deficit that grew as large as 16 points. He finished with 11 points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals while logging 38 minutes.

Lehigh finally took its lone lead of the game when Tim Kempton (14 points, eight rebounds) stuck a putback with 6:51 to go. Within two minutes, Loyola had again moved ahead.

Andre Walker pushed the Greyhounds ahead when he drilled a 3-pointer with just under 5 minutes to play for his first points of the game. While Walker's shot was in the air, Kempton was whistled for his fourth foul underneath the basket, giving Loyola another possession.

Walker turned it into a six-point trip when he connected on another 3-pointer to give Loyola a 54-50 edge. Eric Laster (game-high 17 points) added another 3-ball with 3:53 to go as part of a good shooting night from deep for the Greyhounds.

Loyola shot 52.9 percent from the arc (9-for-17), with Tyler Hubbard (16 points, four 3s) doing much of the damage. The Greyhounds began Saturday shooting 31.6 percent from 3-point range.

"It's unfortunate that we weren't able to establish ourselves both offensively and defensively," Lehigh coach Brett Reed said. "I thought Loyola got comfortable on offense. They made plays.

"On offense for us, we weren't able to make the plays that we needed to, leaving a lot of possessions empty whether through turnovers, lack of conversion from the free-throw line or lack of finishes."

Lehigh was still within 57-54 with a chance to move closer when another call went against it. Kempton was making a move near the basket with 2:05 to go when he was whistled for an offensive foul that disqualified him.

Kempton and Justin Goldsborough (11 points, six rebounds, career-high six blocked shots) also struggled from the foul line to undermine Lehigh's comeback bid. The Mountain Hawks went 10 of 18 from the line, while Loyola finished 12-for-12.

"We're not going to get our heads down," Ross said. "We know we've got a lot of games left. We're going to just get back in the gym Monday to keep building habits and keep getting better."